1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multifunction printer for reading out and printing any digital image from a memory card on which digital images are stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer of nowadays has a memory card slot for inserting a memory card to be used in a digital camera or the like, and an operation panel for a user to input designation or the like of a print setting. In such a case, the printer has a function of printing a digital image in a memory card by the printer alone without connecting to the PC (so-called direct printing function).
A multifunction printer with a scanner function (image reading apparatus), enabling operation such as scanning, copying and the like other than printing has been penetrating into the market.
In such a multifunction printer with a direct printing function, as an approach to easily print image data such as that from a digital camera or the like without using a PC, one shown below is known. For example, functions of arranging a plurality of images in a memory card, marking on a printed image selecting sheet and selecting an image to be printed, reading in the marked image selecting sheet and printing the selected image are known.
As a multifunction printer with such a direct printing function, one with a function of erasing image data in a memory card without using a PC is known.
If a user erases image data in a memory card by a multifunction printer with a direct printing function without using a PC and the printer has a viewer (image displaying function), the user makes the viewer display the image data piece by piece and selects a piece of image data the user wants to erase.
If a multifunction printer does not have a viewer, a user needs to perform index printing, select a piece of image data the user wants to erase as viewing the index print and designate the piece of image data to erase on an operation panel by the ID number, the file name or the like. The “index printing” is to print a plurality of pieces of image data on a sheet of paper.
All the cases mentioned above have a problem in that it is very difficult for a user to search for an image the user wants to delete and designate to erase the image, and that the user could delete an unwanted image data, particularly when the user uses a memory card which stores a plurality of pieces of image data.